Customizing component reports Tutorial

Transcription

1 Tutorial 1

2 Software, documentation and related materials: Copyright 2002 Altium Limited. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication, in whole or part, of this document by any means, mechanical or electronic, including translation into another language, except for brief excerpts in published reviews, is prohibited without the express written permission of Altium Limited. Unauthorized duplication of this work may also be prohibited by local statute. Violators may be subject to both criminal and civil penalties, including fines and/or imprisonment. Altium, Protel, Protel DXP, DXP, Design Explorer, nvisage, CAMtastic!, Situs and Topological Autorouting and their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Altium Limited. All other registered or unregistered trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners and no trademark rights to the same are claimed.

3 Customizing component reports Creating customized component reports...1 Creating a BOM report...1 Using the Report Manager dialog...2 Manipulating Columns...2 Showing columns...3 Grouped Columns...3 Sorting the column order...4 Sorting data within columns...4 Custom Filtering...5 Creating the Report...5 Exporting the report...6 Using Excel templates...7 Using Batch mode...7 Creating customized component reports Several component reports, such as the Bill of Materials (BOM) report and the Component Cross Reference report, can be customized in DXP by using the Report Manager. This facility allows you to sort and group the data gathered when the report is run. You can also export the report in various formats, such as a Microsoft Excel document or an Adobe Acrobat PDF, or use an Excel template to format the exported data. A batch mode can be used to generate reports that have been set up from an output job configuration file. In this tutorial, we will look at using the Report Manager to set up a Bill of Materials in the Schematic Editor. The BOM report can also be generated from the PCB Editor. The tutorial uses the Altium\Examples\LCD Controller project as an example. Please note that although referred to as the Report Manager dialog in this tutorial, the dialog name will change according to the type of report you are generating, e.g. Bill of Materials (by PartType) for <project_name>. Creating a BOM report To create a Bill of Materials in the Schematic Editor: 1. With the required project or source documents open, select Reports» Bill of Materials. The Bill of Materials for project_name dialog displays. 1

4 The dialog is divided into two main parts the Columns lists on the left and the data section (grid contents) that displays the information in the shown columns that is generated when the report is initially run. 2. Use this dialog to build up your BOM, for example, by enabling the Show option next to the columns you want to be displayed in the report. We will now look at ways of changing the look of the raw data to create a customized BOM. Using the Report Manager dialog When you run a Bill of Materials or a Component Cross Reference Report, the Report Manager dialog displays to help you format your report. You can show, hide and move columns and then sort and filter the data within the columns before exporting or printing your report. Manipulating Columns The left-hand side of the Report Manager dialog contains two sections - Grouped Columns and Other Columns. The Other Columns section lists all available information columns that can be used in the report. These information columns are sourced from the properties of all components on the document (or the source documents if a project is open) for which the report is being generated. 2

5 Showing columns To show the Other Columns in the data section of the Report Manager: 1. Click on the Show option next to a column's entry in the list to enable it. The column will appear in the main information area of the dialog. 2. Each enabled column will list information for each of the components found in the source schematic document(s), where such information exists. If the component does not have any information for that particular property, the field will be blank. Grouped Columns You can choose to group components together by one or more specific columns of information. For example, in a Bill of Materials report, you may wish to group components by Footprint or Comment. 1. Click, drag and drop the desired information column from the Other Columns section into the Grouped Columns section of the Report Manager dialog. 2. The column heading appears in the Grouped Columns section and the data is updated to display according to the new groups. You will note that by grouping by footprints, the Quantity column is updated. 3. Click, drag and drop other columns as required into the Grouped Columns section. 4. If you add the LibRef and Comments columns to the Grouped Columns list (for example), you can then change the sorting order of the groups. You could organize the grouping so that you could make a report for all RES (LibRef column) with the same value (Comment column) and the same package (Footprint column). To do this, 3

6 simply click, drag and drop the Grouped Columns until they are in the order Footprint, Comment and then LibRef. By sorting and filtering the data, you can then define the limits for each of these columns. Sorting the column order The order of the columns in the data section of the dialog can be changed from the Other Columns section or from within the data section itself. The order of the columns in the Other Columns section is reflected by the order of the columns in the data section unless you change the columns directly in the data section. To change the order of columns from the Other Columns section: 1. Click, drag and drop a column name in the Other Columns section to its new position in the list. Repeat until you are satisfied with the order of the columns. 2. The column headings in the data section are updated. For example, if you dragged the column name Quantity to the top of the Other Columns list and Show was enabled, it would appear as the first column heading in the data section. To change the order of columns from within the data section: 1. Click, drag and drop a column heading in the data section to its new position. 2. Note that when a column heading is selected for moving and a valid position is found, the two green arrows are displayed, showing where the column will be inserted. Note that if you wish to see all the columns within the Report Manager dialog, enable Force Columns into View. Sorting data within columns 1. Click on a column heading (away from the far right drop-down arrow) to toggle the sorting of the information between ascending and descending order. 2. All columns will be affected, but the rows will be sorted according to the information column whose heading you click on. Note that if not all the data is displaying within the column, right-click and select Column Best Fit [shortcut Ctrl+F] to lengthen the width of each column according to the longest field entry. 4

7 Custom Filtering You can apply filtering to show specific component entries. 1. By clicking on the far right drop-down arrow in a column's heading, either select from the individual row entries available, or select Custom, which displays the Custom AutoFilter dialog. 2. Specify exactly which rows of information you want to show, based on filter criteria you apply to the particular information column. In the simple example above, this filter will only display components with a LibRef called RES. Click OK. The drop-down arrow next to the Footprint column heading turns blue to indicate customization of this column. 3. A textual representation of the filter currently applied, e.g. (LibRef = RES), appears in the bottom-left corner of the data section of the dialog. A filter can be quickly cleared by clicking on the small cross next to the text. Creating the Report The Report command is used to create a report using the current data section. The report is automatically loaded into the Report Preview dialog where you can inspect it using various page and zoom controls before exporting or printing it. 1. Click on Report to display a print preview of your BOM. The Report Preview dialog displays. 5

8 2. This preview can be printed using the Print button or exported to a file format, such as.xls for Microsoft Excel, using the Export button. See the table below for more export file formats available in this dialog. Close the dialog. Microsoft Excel Worksheet (*.xls) Web Page (*.htm; *.html) Adobe PDF (*.pdf) Web Layer (CSS) (*.htm; *.html) Window Bitmap File (*.bmp) Quattro Pro Worksheet (*.wq1) Rich Text Format (RTF) (*.rtf) JPEG Image File (*.jpg) TIFF Image File (*.tif) Lotus 123 Worksheet (*.wk1) Exporting the report The grid content of the data section can also be exported and a report generated by using the Export button in the Report Manager dialog. When exporting the data using the Export option from the Report Manager dialog, the following file formats are supported. Microsoft Excel Worksheet (*.xls) XML Spreadsheet (*.xml) Web Page (*.htm; *.html) CSV (Comma Delimited) (*.csv) Tab Delimited Text (*.txt) 6

9 1. If you want the relevant software application, e.g. Microsoft Excel, to open once the exported file has been saved, make sure Open Exported is selected in the Report Manager dialog. 2. Click on Export button in the Report Manager dialog and save the file in the appropriate format. Using Excel templates If you want to export your data straight into an Excel template, you can select an existing Excel template or you can use the supplied Default Excel template. 1. Enter the required Excel template file directly into the Template field of the Report Manager dialog, or select BOM Default Template.XLT from the dropdown list, or browse for an existing Excel template (.XLT). The file can be specified with a relative or absolute path. For more information about template creation, refer to your Microsoft Excel documentation. 2. If you have the Open Exported option selected in the Report Manager dialog, the file will open in Excel after export. 3. Click on the Excel button to open the Spreadsheet Preview dialog. 4. Click OK in the Spreadsheet Preview dialog to generate the export. The report opens in Excel, formatted in the nominated Excel template. Using Batch mode The Batch Mode field in the Report Manager dialog allows you to specify the export format when generating a report from an output job configuration file ( *.OutJob). This file is created by selecting File» New» Output Job File. 7